During today’s teleconference team owner John Force emphatically stated that his entire team of three Funny Cars and two Super Comp dragsters would compete in this coming weekend’s Summitracing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Prior to the opening of the gates on Thursday Force will have made a series of untimed, 300-foot runs to determine whether or not the substantial changes that have been made to all of his team’s cars have rendered them undriveable.  This testing will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, at LVMS.  Acknowledging that “testing” within a seven day period at a national event site is prohibited, NHRA senior vice president Graham Light explained that an exception is being made due to not only the circumstances, but the unavailability of another suitable testing site prior to this weekend’s race.

Among the changes that were made at Murf McKinney’s shop in Indiana are a widening of the roll cages, the addition of significant amounts of additional padding around the helmet area (Force suggested the padding is close enough to his helmet to keep his head from moving side-to-side under racing conditions) and new safety R-3-type seven point harnesses.  Other changes include the permanent mounting of the safety belts to the frame rails so that they can no longer potentially slide along the tubing in the event of a crash.

During today’s teleconference team owner John Force emphatically stated that his entire team of three Funny Cars and two Super Comp dragsters would compete in this coming weekend’s Summitracing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
           
Prior to the opening of the gates on Thursday Force will have made a series of untimed, 300-foot runs to determine whether or not the substantial changes that have been made to all of his team’s cars have rendered them undriveable.  This testing will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, at LVMS.  Acknowledging that “testing” within a seven day period at a national event site is prohibited, NHRA senior vice president Graham Light explained that an exception is being made due to not only the circumstances, but the unavailability of another suitable testing site prior to this weekend’s race.

Among the changes that were made at Murf McKinney’s shop in Indiana are a widening of the roll cages, the addition of significant amounts of additional padding around the helmet area (Force suggested the padding is close enough to his helmet to keep his head from moving side-to-side under racing conditions) and new safety R-3-type seven point harnesses.  Other changes include the permanent mounting of the safety belts to the frame rails so that they can no longer potentially slide along the tubing in the event of a crash.

Dr. John Melvin, who holds a PHD in Biomechanical Engineering, and is a former consultant to NASCAR and is now affiliated with Wayne State University in Michigan, stated that preliminary examination of all the data available, plus a thorough examination of Eric Medlen’s race car chassis, indicates he died as a result of severe side-to-side head motion.  It could be said that his injuries were similar to those seen in Shaken Baby Syndrome, but this was far more violent.  Medlen’s head did not strike any portion of the roll cage area behind his head, nor did his helmet strike anything forward, such as the steering wheel.

Force is working closely with NHRA, the PRO and the SFI to research and institute possible further changes to the cars to make them safer.  Should these studies reveal methods of making the cars safer, alterations to the rest of the Funny Car and Top Fuel fields will undoubtedly follow closely.  Remember, the first aluminum shrouding to ever appear around a Funny Car driver’s hands was in Force’s car, with NHRA quickly making such shrouding mandatory for everyone.

Goodyear also released a statement regarding their study of the blown tire on Medlen’s car, reporting that a puncture resulted in its failure.  Based on their study, and on the efforts of Dr. Melvin, it appears that the violent side-to-side oscillation that resulted in Medlen’s death was caused at least partially by the tire failure.  Force and others involved in the teleconference emphasized that this was not a tire failure in the sense that some in drag racing have come to know them, but was something completely outside anything previously seen in motorsports.

Because the tire did not completely come apart, every turn of the completely unbalanced wheel and tire assembly resulted in a ground impact estimated to have been in excess of 40,000 lbs. pressure.  Simply put, it appears to have been severe enough to have resulted in a massive chassis failure, as Medlen’s impact with the Gainesville Raceway retaining wall has been estimated to have been no more than 120 MPH, certainly not fast enough by itself to have resulted in the massive tubing failures that resulted.

Among Force’s comments were an apology to the fans and media for having been completely out of touch since the accident.  He also relayed how touched the entire JFR family was by driver Ron Capps and tuner Ed McCulloch’s having delivered the Houston trophy to John Medlen at the JFR shop in Indianapolis earlier this week.

Force also said, “Every racer deserves to know the truth (about what happened), and we intend to tell them.  I was guilty of being on the ‘other side’ when it came to some safety issues, but now I know the pain, and I’m on John Medlen’s side.”  Force is determined that the type of accident that took Medlen’s life won’t be repeated.

Kenny Bernstein has followed Force’s lead, with his Monster Dodge being the only other Funny Car slated to run in Las Vegas that will have incorporated the larger roll cage area and other changes outlined above.  According to Force, Bernstein will await the results of the testing before he commits to the car for Las Vegas.  It’s possible that the King of Speed could compete with a “standard” race car chassis.  All that will be settled by the results of tomorrow’s test at LVMS, which will be closely observed by NHRA’s Dan Olson, the man in charge of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing.

John Medlen admitted to “getting by one day at a time,” while also saying that his deep religious feelings are helping he and his family get through this tragedy.

Ashley Force broke down in tears during the teleconference when discussing her relationship with Eric Medlen, but emphatically stated her desire to continue racing.  She admitted her passion for the sport, which goes back 24 years, the last six of which she’s been “in training” for her current position as a Funny Car driver on her father’s team.  “My dad is over protective,” she said at one point.  “We have to decide if we’re going to race, and I’m not willing to give up all the work we’ve done to get to this point.”

Force then added, “My problem is that I’m a father first, and then a race car team owner, but (the accident) has changed everything.”

Dr. Melvin’s study of the accident was helped by computer and math modeling, efforts that apparently came somewhat close to replicating the accident scenario in the laboratory.  After Force’s team provided Melvin with their plans for altering the roll cages and adding additional padding further tests were run indicating that the alterations would help eliminate the possibility of a repeat accident.

Forces feels his organization will grow stronger as a result of these unfortunate circumstances, and emphasized that all four teams remain intact, and that all of the personnel will be in Las Vegas to help one another in any way they can.  When asked about the possibility of retiring, Force responded by emphatically stating, “I’d be a piece of shit if I quit.  We will not let (this accident) go away.  My people will make this have ‘meaning.’”

Force also acknowledged that he thinks the cars are going too fast, but offered no suggestions on how to slow things down a bit.  “Our identity is speed and elapsed time,” he said.  “I fought (slowing the cars down), but we’ll address those issues with NHRA.  The fans can’t tell if you’re going 300 or 330.”

When asked about the future of Medlen’s team Force said “That fourth car may or may not go away.  It’s too early to tell.”

While Force’s Funny Cars were altered by Murf McKinney in Indiana, the Super Comp entries of Brittany and Courtney Force are getting similar makeovers at Victory Race Cars in Southern California before heading up to Las Vegas.  But as the family patriarch emphasized, if the testing in his car does not go to his satisfaction, none of the cars will compete this weekend. – Jon Asher